Accurate retrieval of region of interest for estimating point spread function and image deblurring

ABSTRACT

Extraction of an optimal region of interest (ROI) is crucial in many image processing applications, such as estimation of the point spread function (PSF) and blind deconvolution (BD). Although the amount of publications on PSF and BD is quite extensive; however, the work on ROI estimation has not received much attention. Existing methods which used heuristic models are not only time-consuming but also computationally expensive. In this paper, we proposed a new ROI retrieval scheme based on image partitioning and entropy measurement feedback. This method has low computation cost since it contains no matrix operations. Comprehensive experiments on real and synthetic datasets revealed that the proposed method is competitive when compared with existing search techniques, averaging at 26.1 dB, 0.46 and 1.44 on peak signal-to-noise ratio, universal image quality index and error ratio scales, respectively. On average, the proposed method takes less than 10 s to retrieve the ROI which is significantly faster compared to established solution.

KEYWORDS:

• Region of interest
• entropy
• point spread function
• blind deconvolution

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Dataset Image Permissions

All images in Dataset I © the authors, reproduced with permission.All images in Dataset II © the authors, reproduced with permission, except Figures 4b and 4c © Whyte O, Sivic J, Zisserman A. Deblurring shaken and partially saturated images. Int J Comput Vis. 2014;110(2):185–201), and Figures 4d and 4e © Šroubek F, Milanfar P. Robust multichannel blind deconvolution via fast alternating minimization. IEEE Trans Image Process. 2012;21(4):1687–1700.

Notes on contributors

Ahmad Husni Mohd Shapri was born in Sabah, Malaysia, in 1981. He received the B.Eng. (Hons) degree in Computer Engineering from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), in 2003 and the M.Sc. degree in Computer Science from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), in 2007. He is currently pursuing Ph.D. degree in Electronic Engineering at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). In 2003, he joined the Department of Integrated Circuit Design at MIMOS Berhad, as a design engineer. Since August 2008, he has been with the School of Microelectronic Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), as a lecturer. He is a graduate engineer of the Board of Engineer Malaysia (BEM). His research interest includes imaging, electronic system design and computer vision.

Mohd Zaid Abdullah graduated from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) with a B. App. Sc. degree in Electronic in 1986 before joining Hitachi Semiconductor as a test engineer. In 1989, he commenced an M.Sc. in Instrument Design and Application at University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, UK. He remained in Manchester conducting research in Electrical Impedance Tomography at the same university, and received his Ph.D. degree in 1993. He joined USM in the same year. His research interests include microwave tomography, digital image processing, computer vision and ultra wide band sensing. He has published numerous research articles in international journals and conference proceedings. One of his papers was awarded The Senior Moulton medal for the best article published by the Institute of Chemical Engineering in 2002. Presently he is director of the Collaborative Microelectronic Design Excellence Centre (CEDEC), Universiti Sains Malaysia.

Additional information

Funding

The authors acknowledge financial support from Universiti Sains Malaysia Research University Funding, grant 1001/PCEDEC/814289